I don't know exactly how to feel about what is going on at Gettysburg. Perhaps, someone on the message board has visited the park museum and seen the exhibits and statements made in the hall devoted to Slavery. The purpose of the park is to remember, preserve and explain the battle and its participants. Of course, as a lead-in, the causes of the Civil War are certainly a part of the presentation; however, it appears that the hall dedicated to slavery may be 25% or more of the entire exhibit area. If this is the case, it would seem devoting so much of the museum to this issue is out of balance or not in accordance with the basic purpose of the park.

On the other hand, the museum at Gettysburg was in a dismal condition and if this was the only way to obtain funds to refurbish or rebuild the museum, I can see how some might have pursued funding for the park, through the point of least resistance, namely, by appeasing the folks who strictly see the battlefield parks through a modern cultural prism.

Honestly, I don't think these halls at the Civil War battlefield parks devoted to slavery are going to attract visitors in the long term. Let's be honest, the people who want slavery represented at this level on the battlefield parks have probably never visited a Civil War battlefield and won't be persuaded to do so because a hall at the park museum is dedicated to the subject of slavery.

I'll betcha, within ten years these expansive areas devoted to slavery will be relocated to their appropriate exhibit space area and the parks will find some other more "on topic" use for the space.

Especially with the current composition of our congress and the possibility of an Obama presidency, it will probably be necessary to court funding for the battlefield parks on issues such as slavery. I just hope they don't dig up the Confederate burial mounds and take a wrecking ball to the Confederate monuments.

Jim